See with your heart
by PurpleScorpion
Summary: Edward and Bella has been friends since forever. But Bella has a secret that everyone is aware of- all except Edward. One-shot! Entry for LittleNessie12's Crayola Contest


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*** Well, here is my very first one-shot! This is actually an entry for LittleNessie12's Crayola Contest- my very first contest! The theme of my story is: burnt orange. I wished for a color like blue or brown but as luck has it, the color I got was my most hated color-orange (or any variety of it). But nonetheless, I did the best I could with it and I hope you all enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Nothing's gonna bring me down! Nothing's gonna bring me down! Nothing's gonna bri- (Falls down but stands up again) Nothing's gonna bring me down…**_**except maybe gravity.**_

**I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT. STEPHENIE MEYER DOES.**

_See with your heart_

_6 years old…_

" Edward! Bella! Dinnertime!"

I grabbed Bella's hand and we giggled as we ran downstairs for dinner.

Bella Swan was my very bestest friend ever! She was also the coolest, greatest, most prettiest girl I ever laid my eyes on. Her favorite color is burnt orange and she also had no cooties.

"Edward, you sit there. Bella can sit next to you." Our adopted mommy told us. Bella isn't my sister. Esme and Carlisle adopted us as well as our other 'siblings' Emmett, Alice, Jasper and Rosalie.

My real mommy and daddy use to hit me until I got moved to an adoption center about a year ago. There, I met Bella. We automatically became best friends- we were together 24/7. For me, it was love at first sight.

After dinner, we went to bed. Bella shared a room with Alice and Rosalie but would always sneak in my room and sleep with me. Thankfully, Emmett and Jasper shared another room, leaving me with my very own room!

"Edward?" Bella stuck her head into my room, clutching the little burnt orange bear I got her. I made room in my bed and opened my arms to her. She giggled as she ran towards me, looking like a bright blur with her burnt orange nightdress and 2 matching bows in her hair.

She fell into my arms and we snuggled together. " Good night Edward."

"Night Bella. Sweet dreams." I whispered. I smiled as I dreamt of my very first meeting with Bella.

***

" _Hi. I'm Edward." I raised my hand, hoping the girl with the brown hair and eyes would shake it. I just arrived at the adoption center and normally, I thought girls were icky, but there was something about this girl, who sat alone in the sand box, made me want to know her._

"_I'm Bella." She said, shyly. Instead of shaking my hand, she just held her bear tightly to her and blushed at the ground. I found this cute. I found _her_ cute._

_We spent the rest of the next hour talking to each other. She told me her mom died and her dad was nowhere to be found so that's why she was here. Her favorite food was anything Italian and her favorite birthstone was topaz._

" _Why do you wear so much orange?" I asked. She was wearing orange overalls with an orange shirt and orange sneakers. In her hair was 2 orange bows that sparkled in the sun._

" _It's burnt orange." she corrected. "and it's my favorite color."_

"_Why?" I wondered._

" _Secret." she answered with a wink._

" _What?! Please tell me." I begged, trying to dazzle the answer out of her._

"_Ok." I smiled. " One day." and then I frowned. But it suddenly disappeared as soon as I heard her pretty laugh. _

_From then on, Bella owned my heart._

***

_12 years old…_

" I hate you Edward!"

My heart broke as I saw my girl crying, holding up the charcoal lump that used to be her favorite bear. "Bella…" I whispered, unable to form words.

" SHUT UP! Just shut up!" She ran back into the house, leaving me standing outside.

I wanted to do something nice for her, so I washed her bear since it was looking a little dirty. But I ended up turning the bear from a burnt orange to a yellow orange. I panicked and being my stupid 12 year old self I tried to lightly burn the bear, hoping it would turn back to its original color again. It is called _burnt _orange, right?

Bad idea. The bear caught on fire; 50% of it now ashes. And that's when Bella came out to see everything.

This was our very first fight. Sure, we argued before, but never really fought. I had to make this right.

I went to every store I could find and searched high and low for a burnt orange bear that was exactly the same. Finally- after 22 previous stores- I finally found one. I quickly bought it-using most of my allowance - and ran home to Bella.

I found her sitting on my bed, cuddling her ruined bear, crying softly to herself. When she saw me, she quickly got up and ran to hug me.

" Oh, Edward. I'm sorry, I didn't mean what I said before." she told me. I hugged her close to me, waiting for both our tears to stop. After a while, I held up the new bear to her.

" Here." I smiled as she squealed with delight, hugging her new bear. " I'm sorry again for before."

" It's okay. Thank-you!" she hugged me again before blushing as she gave me a kiss on the cheek. " I don't hate you Edward…I love you." I felt my heart burst in happiness at her words.

" I love you too, Bella. Always have." and with that, I gathered her in my arms and gently kissed her on the lips. We continued to kiss each other for the rest of the day.

That night, I vowed to never let Bella cry again.

***

" _Rosalie. I want you to be nice to Bella." I heard my mother say. For some reason ever since Rosalie met Bella, she hated her. I was now 10 and Rosalie's feeling toward Bella still haven't changed._

_I noticed that though the rest of the family was nice to Bella, I could tell that they were uncomfortable around her and barely spoke to her. I shook it off because I figured it was because Bella was very shy- I was the only person she would talk to- and it never bothered her. But when Rosalie's obvious dislike made her cry, I had to do something about it._

_I told Esme what happened and she promised to talk to Rosalie about it. Now me, Bella and her burnt orange bear spied an them from the hallway as they spoke in the living room._

" _But mom…" Rosalie whined. " You can't be serious!"_

" _I am. So please be nice to her, for Edward." Esme said strictly._

" _But why should I be nice to her?" Rosalie yelled. " Bella is just-"_

" _Enough!" Esme snapped, cutting her off. " You should always be nice and respect family. Bella is family so I want you to apologize to her. Are we clear?"_

" _Crystal." Rosalie muttered. She stood up and walked out of the room. When she saw us, she gave me a look for a moment before turning to Bella._

"_Sorry…_Bella**.**_" she sneered before running to her room and slamming her door. I was about to run after her and tell her how rude she was but Bella caught my arm, shaking her head._

" _Leave it Edward. I'm okay now." she pleaded. I sighed and smiled at Bella. She always hated conflicts and that was one of the things I loved about her. _

_I promise to protect Bella forever._

***

_18 years old…_

" I love you." I whispered to Bella, kissing her finger that now held the burnt orange diamond ring I gave her. This evening I proposed to Bella to be my wife and was ecstatic when she said yes! We spent the rest of our night losing our virginities and expressing our love for each other.

" I love you too, Edward." Bella whispered, crying tears of joy on my shoulder. I kissed her forehead gently before playing with a strand of her beautiful hair. When I noticed that her tears didn't stop, I slowly pulled away from her only to be alarmed at the sadness on her face.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" I asked concerned, wiping her tears away.

"Edward, I need to tell you something." Bella said.

" Are you finally going to tell me why your favorite color is burnt orange?" I teased, looking at her torn burnt orange nightgown laying on the floor. I was still worried about why she was crying. She shook her head.

" I can't keep holding you back." Bella whispered.

" What are you talking about?" I asked, flabbergasted.

" You need to know the truth." she told me.

" About what?" I was so confused at this point/

" Remember what all your family members and therapists tell you? Well…it's true."

" What are you talking about?" I repeated.

" You know what I'm talking about." she said, frustrated.

" No, I don't." I insisted.

" Check out the picture on your nightstand and you'll finally understand. I'm sorry Edward." she whispered, tears streaming down her face.

I stared at her for a minute, not moving, before I slowly made my way to the nightstand. The picture on it was taken when we first moved to this house and Bella and I were holding each other, smiling happily. I picked up the picture and gasped.

Bella wasn't in it. The picture was the exact same one that we taken, but Bella was no longer in it. In the picture had me and only thin air where Bella was supposed to be. I had my arms around nothing.

I turned back to speak to Bella, only to see that she was gone. Putting on my boxers, I searched everywhere for her, but she was nowhere to be found. I ran downstairs to see the other albums.

I sat there in confusion, looking at the photos. There was no Bella; only me alone, holding nothing besides me. It was like that for all of the pictures.

What was going on?

*******

" _Edward, I don't think Bella would want to go to the library with me." Jasper said. I thought it was because Bella only liked being around me and no one else. _

_..._

" _I can't believe we have to share a room with _Bella._" Rosalie complained, glaring at the never-been-used bed. I thought it was only because Bella always slept with me so never had to use her bed._

_..._

" _I don't think Bella should play basketball with us." Emmett said. I thought it was because Bella was too clumsy to play and would get herself hurt._

_..._

" _Rosalie and I are going to the mall. Bella can stay home with you, Edward." Alice said. I thought it was because Bella hated shopping._

_..._

" _Carlisle, what should we do?" Esme asked my father, Carlisle. This happened one night when I went down to get a drink of water._

" _I don't know. I thought this phase would pass, but it has only gotten worse." he said, rubbing his face lightly._

" _Edward is always alone, always with _her_. Because of her, Edward can't even go to school anymore for fear he would talk to her." Esme cried in despair._

" _I know. He is now 17, almost an adult. I hear them _kissing _sometimes__." Esme gasped. " They might be doing even more. I'm just not sure what to do anymore. How can we convince Edward that Bella is…" It was then that I heard the word that I never really cared to 'listen' to, until now._

_**Imaginary.**_

_No._

_NO!_

_It couldn't be! Bella was real. Everything we had was real. All our experiences and meetings. All our touchings and hugs and make out sessions. When we made love…our love for each other. Those were all real. It isn't possible that all that, my whole life, was imaginary._

…

_Was it?_

*******

_22 years old…_

It's been 4 years since 'Bella' left my life. I spent 3 of those years in a mental institution. No matter what anyone says, I will forever know it as 'The Cuckoo Shack'.

I spent this last year making a life-a _real _life- for myself. I stayed with my family who loved and supported me (including Rosalie) throughout this while ordeal. The sessions, the fact that you know people see you as crazy, wasn't what hurt me most.

It was the fact that Bella was gone.

After that night, I never saw-or imagined- her again. The only thing I had left of her was my memories and the pictures I drew of her. I was grateful that I was good in art because those pictures were like photographs-They looked just like her. It was because of those pictures that my family knew how beautiful she was.

No matter what my therapists or anyone else say, I will always believe that what I had with Bella was real. No, I never truly saw her with my eyes, but I _saw _her with my heart.

And that's all that really matters.

Me and my family were at La Push, just hanging around, having a picnic. The others went to college so this was like a family reunion.

I just laid under the umbrella, watching as the others played around. I never interacted with other people anymore. Well, I guess I never really interacted with them before anyways since I was always with Bella.

It still hurt to think of her. I couldn't even look at burnt orange anymore for fear that my shattered heart would burst into ashes. But I never regretted my time with Bella. Never.

I started to shut my eyes before a girl a few feet away from me caught my attention.

She was looking out at the sea, holding a burnt orange bear. She had chocolate brown eyes and dark brown hair that cascaded down her back. She wore a flowy burnt orange dress with a matching bow in her hair.

I could hear my family's gasps as they noticed where I was looking. I t must have been like seeing a picture come to life. Their gasps and bursts were filled with disbelief, confusion, fear and…hope. With that, I knew that I didn't lose my mind this time. She was really here.

I shot up and ran towards her, stopping a few feet away from her. I took a deep breath and held my hand up to her. " Hi. I'm Edward."

Just like déjà vu, the girl clutched her bear to her and replied, "I'm Bella." before looking at the ground, blushing.

There were so many things I wanted to say, to ask her. Is he okay? Did she know me like I knew her? And most importantly-Is she real this time? Of all the questions that ran through my head, only one could managed to come out of my mouth.

" Why is your favorite color burnt orange?" I held my breath and waited for her answer.

She smiled a breath-taking smile and looked at me for the first time.

" I like the burnt orange because it was the color of the dress my mother gave me before she died." she said, taking one step towards me.

" I like burnt orange because it was the color of the hair bows my father gave me a year after my mother's death." she took another step towards me.

" And I love burnt orange because it was the color of the bear that my first and _only _love gave me when I needed someone the most." Bella was now right in front of me, happy tears in her eyes. Tucking her bear under her arm, she used her free hand to cup my face gently.

I grabbed that same hand and pulled her into a tight embrace. As I buried myself in her hair, I smiled for the first time in 4 years.

" And you know why _I _love burnt orange?" I whispered to her, our faces only an inch apart. " Because it was the color that always reminded me of you. My one and only love." and with that, I closed the distance between us and kissed her deeply and lovingly.

It didn't matter if Bella was imaginary or not. She will and has always existed in my heart.

And I will never let her go ever again.

_**The end.**_

*******

**=D**

*_Don't ask me how any of this is possible. Just believe that when it comes to love, _anything_ is possible. Wooowww….that is so cheesy. But true :)_

_I hope you all enjoyed this one-shot and please tell me what you think of it!!! Many thanks for reading this story! And read my other story: My Baby, Forever._

'_**My Baby, Forever' **__summary__: _After an incident occurs, Edward gets turned into a baby! How will Bella and the Cullens deal with raising a 1 year-old Edward and at the same time, trying to turn him back into his 17 year-old vampire self?

_Until then, see-ya!_


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